Anti-Corruption Commission hands over three cases to AG’s office |02 February 2018

Anti-Corruption Commission Seychelles chief executive May De Silva met with the Attorney General, Frank Ally on January 31, 2018, to initiate the formal process in handing over three cases which the commission has been investigating for the past six months.

ACCS is confident that it is handing over sufficient evidence to the Attorney General for his office to pursue the matter in accordance to Section 64 of the Anti-Corruption Act 2016.

It needs to be noted that the Act stipulates that “no prosecution…. shall be instituted except by, or with, the consent of the Attorney General”.

Those cases relate to the following:

AG Case 1 - alleged abuse of position by a former minister.

AG Case 2 - alleged abuse of position and liability for corrupt acquisitions by another former

minister.

AG Case 3 - alleged unlawful acquisition and misuse of public funds by a public servant.

Furthermore, the Anti-Corruption Commission Seychelles (ACCS) has completed Case 4 relating to an allegation of abuse of power where an illegal business is operating on government land without following due process. Despite insufficient evidence of corruption in this case, ACCS identified illegal activities. This case was referred to the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure and Land Transport in November 2017 and ACCS still awaits the ministry’s report and actions. MHILT had been given 30 days as per section 18 (2) of the Anti-Corruption Act 2016, to submit their report to ACCS and take necessary actions to rectify the problem.

Case 5 relates to an allegation of abuse of power and corrupt practices. Due to insufficient evidence of corruption, ACCS will be referring this case to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture as there is ample evidence of malpractice. The ministry will be receiving recommendations from ACCS whereby they will have to compensate the individual affected.

The ministry will have 30 days to submit their report to ACCS and actions to be taken in order to rectify the problem.

With regards to the US $50 million case, ACCS can confirm that it submitted over 3.5kg of documents that was collated over the past six months in Seychelles to investigators in the UK.

ACCS continues to gather local evidence and statements following a new line of enquiry. Should anyone have any information relating to this case, please do not hesitate to contact ACCS.

It is worth noting that ACCS currently has only two investigation officers who had to review over 92 bulky files in the five cases mentioned.

To date, ACCS has received 74 complaints of which three have been closed and seven referred to relevant authorities as they did not relate to corruption.

ACCS will continue to detect, investigate and prevent corruption as per its mandate.